Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a tire testing machine for performing a performance test of a tire.
Description of the Related Art
When there is a part in which elastic modulus, size, or a shape is not uniform in the circumferential direction in a tire to be installed in an automobile or the like, the above part generates vibration at the time of high-speed rotation and causes lowering of a running performance. Therefore, circumferential uniformity of the tire is checked by a tire testing machine after a vulcanizing process. With this tire testing machine, after a bead portion on an inner periphery of the tire is fitted into a rim member and attached to rotating spindles and predetermined internal pressure is applied to the tire, rotation and driving are performed while an outer periphery of the tire is pressed onto a road surface substitute member such as a drum, and a test is performed. In general, a lubricant (lubricant liquid) is applied to the bead portion of the tire to be tested in order to smoothly fit into the rim member (refer to JP 2012-127794 A).
Meanwhile, in a tire manufacturing step, in a series of tasks of installing identifying information such as a barcode onto a tire, vulcanizing and molding the tire, and performing a test, the tire is managed with the identifying information. In a case where the tire is managed with the barcode in such a way, in a tire testing machine, before putting the tire into the tire testing machine, or after mounting the tire on an inlet conveyor of the tire testing machine, the identifying information of the tire to be tested is read in by an identifying information detection sensor.
In the field of the tire testing machine, a tire checking method and a tire checking device in which tire data acquired in the rotation direction (tire circumferential direction) is managed based on a rotation direction angle of a position of identifying information relative to a reference point are developed (refer to JP 2001-159584 A). In JP 2001-159584 A, the rotation direction angle is detected with an angle when a barcode is put into a balance dot position detection unit (tire test station) as a reference.
However, JP 2001-159584 A describes, as in the paragraph [0030], that rotation of the tire is stopped when a barcode reader reads the barcode but does not describe any other examples. In the tire testing machine, in a step after the rotation of the tire is stopped, it is not always desirable that the step is moved to the above step while maintaining the position of the tire whose rotation is stopped when the barcode reader reads the barcode. In reality, there is frequently a demand to stop the rotation of the tire at an arbitrary desired angle. However, with this tire testing machine of the related art, the demand cannot be met.